Why the wait?
by Sarah1281
Summary: In which Julia uses her question-and-answer time in the Ministry of Love to try and solve the mystery of why it took O'Brien seven years to finally getting around to arresting Winston.


Why the Wait?

Disclaimer: I do not own 1984.

"Before we bring the session to an end you can ask a few questions, if you choose," said O'Brien.

"Anything I like?" the prisoner asked.

"Anything."

"Okay," Julia said, thinking. "Now, I'm not really much for ideology or philosophy, so if that's the kind of questions you were expecting, you're out of luck."

"No," O'Brien agreed thoughtfully. "You, too, are no metaphysician."

"Um, too?" she asked.

"It is of no importance," he assured her. "You waive your chance for answers, then? That is unusual, but not unheard of."

"I didn't say that," Julia said, somewhat irritably. "Because while I may not need to know the reason the Party exists or why you feel the need to torture us before killing us, I _do_ have some practical questions I'd like to put before you."

"Ask away."

"First of all, Winston told me a bit about you. To be honest, I think he was obsessed with you. He told me how seven years ago, you'd said you'd meet him in 'the place where there is no darkness' or something cryptic like that. I assume you meant here?" Julia began.

O'Brien nodded.

"So you planned to take him here for the past seven years?"

O'Brien nodded again.

"So my question to you is: What took so long?"

"We had to lull him into a false sense of security," O'Brien explained.

"For seven years?" Julia's tone was skeptical.

"He was feeling pretty secure after seven years, though, wasn't he?"

"Hey, it's my turn to ask the questions, not yours," Julia snapped. "You know, if you're not even going to play by your own rules, how am I supposed to learn them?"

"You're right," O'Brien realized, surprised. "I apologize. Please continue."

"Thank you. Now, that whole seven year thing seems like a huge waste of time if you just wanted to make him feel safe before you made your move because, according to Winston, he never thought he was doomed until he brought that notebook."

O'Brien coughed. "Is that so? Well, I suppose we'll just have to take this into account for the next thoughtcriminal."

"Wait, wait, wait," Julia said, eyes wide. "You mean to tell me that you do things like stake someone out for seven years often?"

"Yes, we do," O'Brien said, puffing up with pride. "Impressed by our diligence and spying capabilities?"

"No," Julia shook her head. "I'm not, really. I mean, don't get me wrong, all those pictures you have of Winston and I are certainly chilling, but watching someone you knew was a thoughtcriminal for seven years is a bit…much."

"You think it odious, then, to rob him of seven years of relative privacy?" O'Brien questioned.

Julia laughed. "Privacy! What is privacy to me but a go-ahead to have sex?"

"Then what is your problem with our methods?" he asked.

"I don't have a problem, per se. After all, if you had taken him seven years ago, we never would have met." She paused, considering. "Although I probably wouldn't be here right now if it weren't for him and his 'I'm dead anyway so I'm going to do everything I can to get us caught' philosophy. But either way, if you knew he was a thoughtcriminal seven years ago, why didn't you arrest him then?" Julia asked sensibly. "You typically arrest people the moment you suspect something."

"Well…that is…what harm did waiting do?" O'Brien finally managed to retort.

"Oh I don't know," she said sarcastically. "Possibly evolved him from a 'hey didn't we used to be at war with Eurasia' kind of guy to a 'let's have sex as often as we can and write _down with Big Brother_ everywhere and try to overthrow the party' kind of guy. I mean, people always get more radical the longer they oppose something. For instance, when I was first having an affair with Charles, I never dreamed of sleeping with scores of men, but as time passed, it just sort of happened. Not to mention all that extra time could be used to corrupt others."

"We'll certainly take that into consideration," O'Brien said, gritting his teeth. "Anything else you'd like to know?"

"Yeah, what was the deal with Carrington?" came the immediate answer.

"The man you know as 'Carrington' is actually member of the Thought Police," O'Brien informed her smugly. "You were completely taken in by him."

Julia rolled her eyes. "No kidding. What I want to know is this: Why did Carrington come after us if you were already on Winston's trail?"

"Why, were two members of the Thought Police too much for you to handle?" O'Brien gloated.

Julia rolled her eyes again. "**One** was too much for us. Two is just inefficient."

O'Brien stared at her in stunned silence. Finally, he managed to choke out, "You…dare to…question the…the efficiency of…the Thought Police?"

"Well, maybe if you'd be more efficient I wouldn't have to…"

"We are the _most_ efficient organization in all of Oceania," O'Brien insisted.

"I hate to break it to you, but that's really not saying much," Julia pointed out.

"Well, I was only after Winston, 'Carrington' was after you both," O'Brien quickly rallied.

"And you didn't know I was involved when I showed up to that 'initiation'?"

"Winston solicited that shop long before then."

"And you have photos from almost the day we met," Julia countered. "And even disregarding the wisdom of assigning two members of the Thought Police to two people, why did he wait so long to turn us in?"

"He needed to be sure-" O'Brien began.

"Look, I'm pretty sure he knew what we were doing when we said, 'Hi, can we rent your room to have gratuitous sex in periodically?'"

"Winston said that?" O'Brien's eyebrows disappeared into his hairline.

"No, actually I said that, after Winston made small talk for twenty minutes because he couldn't figure out hot to best broach the subject," Julia explained.

"So you went for the suicidal way."

Julia blinked. "The what way?"

Right, O'Brien reminded himself. Unlike Winston, Julia was born **after** the Party's formation and therefore had never heard of the archaic word. "So you went for the approach that would most likely get you captured," he rephrased.

She shrugged. "I figured he'd find out what we were up to eventually."

"He could have arrested you then."

To his surprise, the girl agreed. "He _should_ have arrested us the, and that's exactly my point. He, to the best of my knowledge, wasn't obsessed with Winston, and that was the first time he met me, so why did **he** wait so long to make his move?"

"Collecting evidence-" O'Brien tried to say, but was again interrupted.

"Oh come on, since when you concerned with proof?" Julia asked scornfully. "You people have made thinking illegal."

"There's no need to get nasty," O'Brien sniffed.

"Says the guy who plans to torture me until I _love_ Big Brother," Julia muttered. "And even if you felt the need to have evidence for once, you had weeks of footage of us having sex on that hidden telescreen, so why the wait? What, are you all voyeurs or something?"

O'Brien reddened. "That's ridiculous," he snapped.

"Then I repeat: Why the wait?"

"We were busy!"

"Doing what?" Julia pressed.

"Top-secret important Inner Party stuff," O'Brien stated lamely.

"Okay, now you're just making excuses," she said bluntly.

"You know, I don't recall you being **nearly** this intellectual before," O'Brien told her, starting to get angry. _Winston_ never interrupted him, and there this girl had done it several times already.

"I was," Julia assured him. "Just…not about this kind of thing."

"About what, then?" he asked skeptically.

"Sex."

"Sex?" he repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, you know, how it have it as much as possible, how to approach potential partners, how not to get caught (which I really should have discussed with Winston), where to have it, keeping all the different men straight…" Julia trailed off. "Trust me, that takes some major coordination. But now that I haven't had any in moths, I've been forced to turn my attention to other things."

"You've been here three weeks," O'Brien told her flatly.

"Have I really? Wow, time goes by really slowly her. Oh, but that reminds me! I've got another question for you: Why exactly are you so interested in my boyfriend? Because it's kind of creeping me out and I was thinking that-"

This time, O'Brien interrupted her. "Jones! Take the prisoner to Room 101."

Jones stared at him. "But sir, are you sure? We _never_ take anyone before they've been here for at six months!"

"Yes I'm sure," O'Brien snapped. "She's just not worth any more effort."

As Julia was dragged away to confront her intense fear of being unable to have an orgasm, she could have sworn she heard O'Brien mutter, "Gotta go find Winston. At least _he_ still loves me."

Inner Party members.

Review, please!


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